The More Things Change
by X to the Zoltan
Summary: Complete. One possible take on the futures of Osaka and Chiyo.
1. Rustling Wings

Ayumu Kasuga's hand slid over a blank page, filling it with her loose, flowing handwriting. This was it, she could _feel _it! This was _the start!_ In spite of her excitement, she wrote as slowly as ever, carefully forming each word. Finally, the pen slid from her fingers as they started drumming lightly on the desk and she read over the result of her epiphany.

"_But they were no match for the fury of his emerald... blade..._" her head sank to the desk with a gentle thump. "God, I suck." Face planted firmly to the cheap wood, she slapped the back of her head with her off-hand. "Commercial, Ayumu, think commercial... but _don't suck!_"

She threw herself back in the chair and sagged limply, staring at the ceiling. Without conscious effort, her fingers deftly turned the sheet into a paper airplane and tossed it. The little dart looped through her small living area and skidded off the top of a wastebasket already stuffed with crumpled paper.

"The problem is that all commercial fiction sucks," she sighed. "This isn't accomplishing anything." Her eyes slowly started tracking motes of dust drifting in the air. There were quite a lot of them, but you'd come to expect that living in such an old building.

After finally hunting down the individual particle she was looking for, she sprang to her feet and started pacing around her abode. It only took a few seconds of such stalking to slide down to her usual energy level, after which she sat heavily her small bed and glowered softly about the apartment.

The rooms were small but not cramped, neat but with a definite rumpled, lived-in feel to them. From where she sat, she could see the whole of her domain, excepting the closet-like restroom with its casket-like shower. The ambiance was dark, not for a lack of sunlight but because the walls were a nice walnut color and her furniture (merely the bed, a dresser, a table, her desk and a couch) were soberly hued as well.

Next to her bed was the "Kitchenette," which was really just a sink, a stove with a single burner, a mini-fridge and a microwave crammed into one corner. There was a cupboard above it full of spices and condiments she never used but could never resist buying.

Two large windows admitted a wash of sunlight and made the place bearable, but also revealed the languid ballet of the dust that always filled her rooms and the whole building. When she had first moved in, her allergies had tried to kill her, but she was past that phase now.

On the table was the sole bit of ostentation in the whole place: a rather nice CD-player with an attendant pair of petite speakers. A modest CD rack stood next to it, the home of a few orchestral discs, some guilty-pleasure pop confections and a lone Edwin Starr (you know it.) She had once had a larger library of Soul discs, but she had lost them one by one in bets with Benjiro, that louse.

Sharing that tabletop was a small army of framed pictures. They were arrayed more or less in chronological order, a picture of her 8th birthday party with all her friends from Osaka on one end and a picture taken only days before on the other. Most of them featured her friends from High School.

Her eyes wandered over them and then forcefully turned away. "Ah, me..." she berated herself, "Don't get all melancholy now. Still... I wonder how they're all doing..."

Instead of the devil's rustling wings, she heard an insistent rap at her door. Ayumu steeled herself; it was probably one of her writer friends, either there to complain about her other friends or talk about some stupid idea they had. Benjiro _never _knocked, and he was about the only person who'd come calling that she'd be happy to see at this particular moment. Taking her time, she crossed the floor of her tiny abode and slid the door open to a surprise.

Her visitor was a tall, willowy girl in a light blue hoodie and jeans. A sleek fall of mahogany hair brushed her narrow shoulders, framing her pretty, heart-shaped face and large, light-brown eyes. Ayumu felt vaguely annoyed at having to look up at her, though she couldn't say why.

"Oh!" the girl said, "I didn't expect you to be in. Hi, Ayumu-san!"

Ayumu stepped back awkwardly. "Oh... um, hello..." _Shoot, she knows my name! Think, Ayumu, think!_

"Hey, c'mon. Don't you recognize me?" She leaned easily on the doorframe. "I came all this way to see you, and I even remembered to bring a present!"

"I, um..." Ayumu _hated_ admitting that she didn't remember someone. Unfortunately, due to her absentminded nature, it was a situation she found herself in often. As she opened her mouth to confess, though, something clicked. "Wait a second..."

She took two handfuls of the girl's hair and held them high to the sides of her head, then stood on her toes and stared deeply into the other's face. After a few seconds of concentration, Ayumu's dark eyes widened and she flinched back. "No way!"

Her visitor smiled broadly. "Now she sees!"

"It can't be...! Wow, you're so... I mean... come in! Come on in, Chiyo-chan!"


	2. Finally Found

And then, ten feet from Ayumu's door, her courage gave out. It wasn't exactly that Chiyo was scared to see her old friend again, but... it had been four years since they had last seen each other in person, three since they had had any meaningful contact. The last letter she had gotten from Ayumu was just after the older girl had dropped out of college, which wasn't exactly the best life decision you could make.

Truth be told, Chiyo had always worried about her friend. Though Ayumu Kasuga had most assuredly _not_ been stupid, hers was a type of intelligence that the world had a hard time gauging and didn't always appreciate. To Chiyo's knowledge, Ayumu had never found anything that she was particularly good at, apart from yawning. (Not exactly a marketable skill.)

Chiyo stared at the door and wondered just what lay behind it. She didn't think she would be able to handle it if she found her friend in desperate straits. It had been a long and difficult search to find this small apartment in Sapporo, but now that she actually stood before it... well...

Before her mind could change, Chiyo hurled herself at the door. _Raprapraprap!_ Even the knock sounded nervous to her. She slid back from the door and shifted her weight from foot to foot and waited... waited... just as it seemed that nobody was home and she could leave, the door softly opened.

"Oh!" Chiyo said in surprise. "I didn't expect you to be in! Hi, Ayumu-san!"

It was a truly surreal experience to see Ayumu again. Chiyo had picked up a few inches in America and now the other only stood up to her chin, but apart from the change in perspective, it was just like old times... almost.

Ayumu stepped back awkwardly. "Oh... um, hello..."

Well, _this _was amusing. Chiyo should have expected as much. "Hey, c'mon! Don't you recognize me? I came all this way to see you, and I even remembered to bring a present!" Since her return to Japan, old customs had come back surprisingly easily. Chiyo was glad that living in America for three years hadn't turned her (completely) into a barbarian.

Ayumu looked a little confused, "I, um... wait a second..." Chiyo smirked a little as Ayumu took handfuls of her hair and held them up. The old pigtails. The shorter woman stood on her toes and searched her face minutely.

"No way!"

A wave of relief rolled through Chiyo. After all, what could be worse than being forgotten? "Now she sees!"

"It can't be...! Wow, you're so... I mean... come in! Come on in, Chiyo-chan!"

Chiyo threw her arms around Ayumu, eliciting a startled "gumph!" from the force of her mighty hug. The visitor was surprised herself, for Ayumu was a little more solid than she remembered. She wasn't exactly an athlete, but... she lost the train of thought when she noticed that Ayumu was tapping out on the doorframe.

"Oh, sorry... it's just... wow!" She held her friend out at arm's length. "How have you _been?_ It's been such a long time!"

"Yeah..." Ayumu finally really smiled. Chiyo noticed that while her eyes were as big and mellow as ever, they were also subtly different. Sharper. More present. But they had the same old deep, dreamy look as well. "How'd you get so tall? Have you been snorting Miracle-Gro or something?"

Chiyo laughed. "No, but my friends from college would probably try to put me up to it."

"Well come in, here, take the couch! Want something to drink?"

"No, no thank you," Chiyo gratefully sank onto one side of the couch and leaned way back. "Ah... I'm so tired! Been here a week and I'm still jet-lagged like you wouldn't believe..." she sat up a little and looked around, pulling a parcel from her pocket. "Nice place, by the way."

"You sound surprised," Ayumu said, sitting on the other end of the couch with a glass.

Chiyo mentally kicked herself. What right did she have to expect anything less of her friend? Time to change the subject. "I tried to read one of your books on the flight over. I'm sorry to admit it, but I didn't get it at all."

"Nobody really does," Ayumu replied easily. "That isn't the point."

"Oh?"

"You're supposed to try and figure it out. The whole point is to make you think, but... you know, I wrote the stupid thing and _I _don't quite understand it. But enough about me—how was America? Did you make a lot of friends? How're classes goin'? Did you get a PhD yet?"

"A PhD?" Chiyo smiled and shook her head. "What expectations! No, my parents limited how many credit hours I could take a year, so I'm still on my way to my first degree."

"In?"

"I don't know yet. I have all of the liberal studies credits I need... and most of the classes for about three degrees... in fact, this is the year that I'll have to buckle down and choose. Part of the reason I'm taking a break now."

"What's the rest of it?"

"To avoid becoming a vegetable." Ayumu's expression of bafflement was priceless. The brilliant Chiyo-chan brought low by college? "I was getting _really _tired. They warned me that it wasn't a good idea to take all the most advanced classes I could, but I felt invincible."

_CHIYO-CHAN'S COLLEGE LIFECYCLE IN SEVEN PHASES  
__Phase 1: Chiyo sits in her desk, eyes bright and attentive, back straight. Enthusiasm for learning is glowing from every line of her young face.  
Phase 2: Chiyo sits, a little haggard, but still perfectly happy.  
Phase 3: The subject is now definitely worse for the wear. Her eyes droop, she slouches in her chair, but keeps soldiering on.  
Phase 4: The subject is seriously waning, her attention jumping randomly around the room. She keeps taking notes, but the handwriting is awful.  
Phase 5: The subject beats her head on the desk repeatedly.  
Phase 6: The subject is now face-down on her desk. The professor calls, "Maybe you can answer this one, Chiyo. Er, Chiyo? Hello?"  
Phase 7 (projected): The subject is dead._

"Between that and the people around there... I think the longer you stay in college, the dumber you get," Chiyo explained. "So I'm taking a semester off, visiting all my old friends, resting a little. I just really needed a vacation."

"Who else did you see?"

"I visited Sakaki-san first. She's a vet back down in Tokyo; just got her own practice, did you know? It's so awesome! Everybody in our old neighborhood goes to her now for their pets, and she's really good to them. But I guess some people think that she's too cold—to the owners, I mean."

"Sakaki-san? Cold? She's one of the sweetest people we know!"

"You have to admit, if you don't know her, she _is _kind of imposing."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I always knew she'd make it, though."

"And Sakaki-san wanted me to tell you that yes, they do in fact take beetles. So then I went to see Kaori-san. She lives in Yokohama with her girlfriend and..."

"_What?_"

"Oh... right, you didn't know. Don't worry, I'd never have guessed either. Akemi-san's really nice, though. I think they make a perfect couple. They both work at the Motomachi Plaza together and when I was visiting, they were real busy. She didn't have time to play host, so the experience was sort of like '23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds in the life of Karoin.'"

"Huh?"

"I mean, like 'A Day in the Life of,' but with a sidereal day, because she's interested in astronomy? It was a joke, get it?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Never mind. Anyway, they're pretty happy there, even talking about getting married, if they can. You're my third target... and you know, you were really hard to track down. It was almost like you didn't _want _to be found."

"Maybe I didn't." There was absolutely nothing amiss in Ayumu's expression or tone of voice, but nevertheless, Chiyo felt a chill. Perhaps her dire predictions hadn't been so far off after all...


	3. Epiphany

"So why _did _you move here to Sapporo?" Chiyo asked. "And why haven't you been writing any of us? You just up and disappeared!"

"Sorry about that..." Ayumu took a long sip from her glass. "I... really don't know why I didn't contact any of you guys. At the time, I was just trying to get away."

"From what?"

"I don't even know. It was just... one morning at college, I woke up and realized that I was desperately unhappy. I bugged out, didn't even bother going home again. I'd already been told that I wouldn't amount to anything, and I didn't want to prove them right. Sapporo seemed like a nice place, so I just sorta... came here."

Chiyo didn't even know what to say to that. She looked around the small room awkwardly. "But... but you're okay now?"

"Never better! Actually, I kept trying to write you guys, but every time I started a letter, I... hm. I mean, what would I tell you? 'I dropped out of college, now I live on the other side of the country with no income, please don't worry about me?'"

"And you didn't think we'd worry about you if you just vanished?"

"I..." Ayumu smiled ruefully. "You know, sitting here explaining it to you, I realize how stupid it was. I'm real sorry. But it made sense at the time. And, and don't worry, my fortune turned around... I'm doing great now, trust me."

For some reason, Chiyo didn't. However, as she didn't want to make things any more difficult, so it was time to yet again change the subject. Just as Ayumu's had earlier, her eyes panned over the pictures, feeling the occasional melancholy pang herself.

Towards the more recent end she saw a picture she didn't recognize; a slightly younger Kagura, Tomo and Ayumu stood in a row in black _gis _(or _doboks_, rather) slashed with blue, Tomo and Ayumu with yellow belts and Kagura with a green. Kagura was grinning heroically, giving the camera a V with one hand and holding a small bronze trophy in the other. Tomo just looked thrilled to be alive, as usual, or maybe it was because she was giving the others bunny ears. Ayumu's smile was a little more subdued, with a nasty bruise discoloring her cheek, but she seemed just as happy.

"Oh, that was about two months before I left," Ayumu said. "Actually, the Tae Kwon Do classes were about the most fun I've ever had."

"You never struck me as the martial artist type. And why Tae...?"

"I never struck me as the type either. Kagura dragged me and Tomo into it and made us promise not to quit. I guess she didn't want to do it alone, and, well, you remember what happened the last time we all tried to join the martial arts together..."

* * *

_Sakaki suddenly burst out of the Dojo and leaned against its outside wall, shaking like a leaf and covering her eyes. There was some commotion in the building behind her, but it quickly died down. After a few seconds, a young man came out after her and put a hand on her shoulder.  
__  
__"Hey, don't be like that!" he said reassuringly, "Chiyo-chan's all right, and Master Arai says that the ceiling tiles aren't a problem." Sakaki straightened a little and looked at him hopefully. "Yeah, you just forgot your own strength. Don't worry. Chiyo-chan's fine. Oh, and Master Arai says you have to do forty push-ups 'cause you didn't bow out."_

* * *

"How could I forget?" Chiyo asked, putting a hand on her solar plexus. "I just wish Sakaki hadn't blamed herself for me quitting. She beat herself up over that one."

"After that, I kinda lost my stomach for it, too," Ayumu continued. "So Kagura didn't want that to happen again. She made me and Tomo promise not to quit for the first year... and it's a good thing she did, too. I wasn't the most... athletic... student."

Chiyo nodded. She well remembered countless PE Classes where the gal from Osaka showed her humiliating lack of coordination, strength and speed again and again. The slowest runner in their grade, most likely to be on the losing side of any game, severe liability in every sports festival... the list went on.

"Well... Tae Kwon Do wasn't any easier. Everyone was so patient with me, but I could barely even kick above my own waist. I'd even say that they made it worse by encouraging and stuff. Eventually, I ended up leaving pretty much every class in tears."

"And that was the most fun you've ever had?" Chiyo asked.

"Not at first. You see, Kagura and Tomo started trying to help me after classes."

* * *

_"So what are you going to do?" Kagura asked skeptically, leaning on the dojang wall.  
  
__"Trust me," Tomo said, "It's a proven method. Ready, Osaka?"  
  
__"That's Ayumu."  
  
__Tomo ignored her. Oh, well, if the wildcat idiot's proven miracle method really did work to improve her flexibility, Ayumu wouldn't have much to complain about. She slid as far into the splits as she could, reaching the point where her feet where her feet were a little more than two and a half shoulder-widths apart. With a grunt of effort, she pushed them out another half-inch.  
  
__"Is that as far as you can go?" Tomo asked. She nodded.  
  
__"You know, Kagura," Ayumu said suddenly, "Are we being unpatriotic? Why did we choose Tae Kwon Do? What would be wrong with a good Japanese mar—oh _GOD!_"  
  
__The last was yelled as Tomo jumped onto her shoulders, grinding her feet at least another seven inches apart. Kagura slapped her forehead. "_That's _your proven method?"  
  
__Before Tomo could answer, they crashed to the floor._

* * *

"She left that night before I could walk again," Ayumu said, smirking at the memory. "By the time the next class rolled around, I'd forgotten all about revenge."

"That sounds like Tomo, all right." Was it Ayumu's imagination, or did the younger girl sound a little sad? "So they were helping you out..." she prodded, putting their conversation back on course.

"Yeah... but for the longest time, I didn't improve at all. We went for weeks and weeks, staying hours after class. Eventually, Kagura started to lose her patience. It was all so easy for her, you see, and she couldn't fathom my struggling for hours on something she just picked up instantly. In fact, I didn't _really _start to improve until Kagura and I had this watershed moment..."

* * *

_"C'mon, just a little higher..." Kagura held the bag at the level of Ayumu's ribs. The other desperately threw a kick, coming just short. "Try again." And again her foot didn't quite make it up. It was late, they were both getting a little tense, and Tomo had long since gone home. Kagura had said that they weren't leaving until Ayumu could kick that high, so here they stood, a living picture of futility.  
  
__"Are you even _trying?_" Kagura finally asked, tossing the bag aside. Ironically, Ayumu's last kick would have gone right through it, but neither noticed. "How long have we been here?"  
  
__"I'm trying as hard as I can," Ayumu said quietly. Her cheeks were already burning for shame from the class before; she didn't need this. The tension that had been rising in her chest since starting TKD was beginning to grow unbearable.  
  
__"I don't know what to do..." Kagura sighed. "It's like you're just determined not to get any better. Are you _trying_ to waste our time?"  
  
__"It's not like I'm holding you here," Ayumu said sullenly. She regretted those words as soon as they left her mouth, but it was too late.  
  
__Kagura stared at her for a long moment, then blew out a harsh sigh. She turned on her heel and started walking away, undoing her belt. "Fine, then. I should have known better. See you at the next class... or not."  
  
__Her tone of voice stabbed into Ayumu, cutting all those weeks of tension loose. "You try it!" she yelled after her friend. Kagura stopped and half-turned. "What?"  
  
__"Y-you try it!" Ayumu gritted, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. "You try being the slow, weak, incompetent one for once! I'll bet you won't like it! What, do you think it's fun? Do you think I _enjoy _failing everything I try, getting dead last in every competition, always coming just short? Well it's not any fun! It sucks!!"  
  
__"Then maybe you should actually start applying yourself!" Kagura replied hotly, "Do you think I got good at this by magic? It doesn't work that way! I worked my butt off for it!"  
__  
"What the hell do you think I've been doing!?"  
__  
"I don't know what you've been doing! I don't know where your focus is!"  
__  
"My focus-!?"  
__  
"Yeah! Can you even buckle down for five seconds? No matter what we're doing, you're always just drifting around! Dammit, all you ever do is dream!"  
  
__Ayumu's anger fled, leaving her wilted and tired. "You're absolutely right. All I do is dream..." her voice slowly gathered energy and fury as she continued. "...because my dreams are the only place where I have any worth to anyone! They're the only place that I can do anything right! Dreaming is all I'm good for, it's all I have and it's all I'll _ever _do! SO DON'T GO BERATING ME FOR IT!"  
  
__Kagura and Ayumu stood there awkwardly for a few seconds after that. Finally, Kagura commented, "Um... well, it's getting late."  
  
__"Yeah."  
  
__"So... so, I'll see you at class on Friday?"  
__  
"Yeah. Sure thing."  
__  
They walked out together in silence, bowing out side by side. In the parking lot, as Ayumu lifted her bike off the ground, Kagura gently laid a hand on her arm, eyes shimmering.  
  
"Look... I'm sorry," she said.  
__  
Ayumu forestalled her apology. "If you start crying, I'm gonna kick your butt, green belt or no, y'hear?"  
__  
They both had a good laugh then set out their own ways for home under a darkening sky._

* * *

"Woah..." Chiyo stared. "I can't imagine... Kagura was always so easy-going! And you weren't exactly a firebrand yourself."

Ayumu took another long sip from her glass before forging ahead. "Well, we were both pushed pretty far. Kagura's easy-going, sure, but towards herself, she's absolutely merciless. I should've been flattered that she cared enough about my growth to freak out over it... but the story's not over."

* * *

_Ayumu pedaled away furiously, if anything even angrier than before. Her legs were on the verge of giving out, but she ignored them. She also ignored the traffic shrieking by frighteningly close beside her and the lovely shade of twilight green the sky had turned in the last minutes of light.  
__  
"Why do I have to be such a weakling!?" she asked the air as she started up a hill, "Why can't I do anyth—no! Stop crying! Dammit, don't cry, you little milksop!" Her leg muscles were screaming with the effort of pulling her up the hill, but she was deaf to their cries. "If you have to be a worthless little nothing, at least don't cry about it! _Why _do I have to be such--!?"  
__  
As she crested the hill, a thought struck her like a thunderbolt. Ayumu thumped awkwardly to a stop and dropped to her feet on either side of the bike. "Wait a second..." she said, turning back towards the dojang, eyes wide, voice now full of wonder. "Why _do _I have to be a weakling? What could be holding me back?"  
__  
Nothing. That was the answer. There was absolutely nothing holding her back. A stiff breeze threw her hair dramatically, adding import to the moment as she turned this over in her head. All at once, she started laughing. "If that's all it took, I'm a bigger idiot than I thought!" she said. "Wow!"  
__  
She felt the urge to strike a dramatic pose, but before she could, a semi blazed past less than a foot from her handlebar, turning the dramatic proclamation she had planned into a panicked, "YEEP!"_


	4. Nation of Bonkuras

"I should have taken the chance to try out Tomo's rolling defense," Ayumu commented. Chiyo seemed to deflate a little on hearing the name. Before she could ask what the matter was, though, the younger girl spoke up. "By the way," Chiyo said, "Did you hear that Kimura-sensei became a monk?"

"_WHAT!?_"

"Oh, yeah," she deadpanned, "He shaved his head and moved to a monastery and everything. His wife was kinda upset, but..." and then she couldn't keep a straight face anymore. "Gotcha."

Ayumu's expression went from dumbfounded to outraged. "You little...! Don't _do _that! I almost had a heart attack!"

Chiyo laughed. "Sorry, I couldn't resist. That's what you get for disappearing on us!"

"I guess I deserved that... say, have you eaten?"

"No. I came straight here from the airport."

"Well, I have some random food items in the mini-fridge there. I could throw us together something if you like."

"Oh, let me!" Chiyo rose and started digging in her pocket. "Remember how I used to be into cooking? I kept it up, and look what my roommate made for me!" She withdrew what looked like a kamikaze headband and tossed on the couch next to Ayumu, who picked it up and struggled though the butchered Japanese writing on either side of the rising sun. "Lady... iron... chef?"

"That's right."

"That's ridiculous. And she didn't use the right kanji for Iron."

"It's the thought that counts," Chiyo took the headband, donned it and struck a pose, speaking in the manner of a bad martial arts movie. "I have gained a reputation for being able to make anything out of anything. My Szechwan technique is known and feared throughout the University!"

"Could you make au gratin bread rolls out of cucumbers?"

Chiyo didn't miss a beat. "If I put my mind to it, sure. Show me to your ingredients and prepare to be amazed!" Ayumu gestured vaguely at the fake kitchenette and Chiyo vaulted into action. Literally.

"Did you go insane in America?" Ayumu asked blandly as Chiyo landed ninja-style in front of the stove and stood as if she were imagining a fiery explosion in the background. Where had all _this _energy come from? "Or was it just five seconds ago?"

"No, it was long ago. You see, back in America, my friends had decided that Chaos Mathematics wasn't turning my brain into jelly fast enough. So they subjected me to this endless stream of American popular culture, trying to brainwash me, I guess. We went through everything from _Citizen Kane _to _Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back_."

"Oh, you poor thing! I saw that one dubbed into Japanese."

Chiyo was examining the vast array of unused spices above her mini-stove. "Some of these are getting pretty old, you know. But, yeah, after about two weeks with Rose and her boyfriend, I was already scarred for life."

* * *

_"So," Brett asked, "What did you think, Chihuahua?"_

_Chiyo stared blankly at the closing credits for a long moment, then stood shakily. "That's it," she said bleakly, "That was the last straw. You've shattered my young mind beyond all repair. The old Chiyo is dead, never to return." She shambled heavily from the room. "Farewell." But as soon as she crossed the threshold, she turned on her heel and strode back in. "I'm back!" she said brightly._

_"She's gone," Brett said._

_"Oh, yeah," Rose agreed._

* * *

"Honestly, I don't know how any of them found time to study. They were always up to some stupid scheme or another, and more often than not, I ended up getting dragged into them. At first they saw me as a stick-in-the-mud, but after a while I kinda gave up resisting." She took one bottle and set it aside. "Oh, you have sansho? Perfect! One thing they never did, though, and I'm glad, is they never tried to get me to drink. From what I've seen it do to them, alcohol is just plain evil."

Ayumu finished her glass and set it aside, declining to comment.

"No, if you think I've gone crazy, you should see Brett and his roommates. They had one of those overbooked rooms, you know, three guys, and they were always at each other's throats... but then, they were always together, too. They invited me and Rose over to play Risk a lot."

* * *

_Chiyo looked surveyed her half of the board over steepled figures. Her blue legions of doom had conquered all of North and South America and were already half-way through Europe. The other four colors were scattered pretty much at random through the remainder of the map, still hamstrung by doing battle with each other. "I'm done with my turn," she said._

_"That does it," Michael cried. He suddenly stood on his chair and put his hands out grandly, as if giving a speech to an army. "Ah'ma retake this bitch! I'm gonna take back Kamchatka! And I'm gonna take back Ural, and China and Irktusk! And then I'm gonna take the White House!" He stabbed a finger at the single blue figure sitting demurely in the Eastern US. "WHOOO!"_

_"Oh, shut up, Howard Dean," Brett said irritably. "Can't you just sit down and get your ass kicked quietly like the rest of us?"_

* * *

"They were always picking on me," continued Chiyo, chopping a small brace of carrots with lightning speed. "Like before I really knew English that well, they would send me into stores to ask for 'Recreational Pharmaceuticals.' It took me a while to realize what it meant."

"That's real sad, Chiyo-chan. I only know five phrases in English, and 'Recreational Pharmaceuticals' is one of them."

"You don't...?"

"Of course not. It's just good for jokes."

"Oh, okay. You're still don't spicy food?" Ayumu nodded vehemently. "I'll only use half of the bottle, then. I was really glad for the constant Chiyo abuse, though, 'cause they were always abusing each other and it made me feel accepted. It was just how they showed affection. I could talk all night about them, you know?"

"Sounds like you had fun."

"Well... yeah. Sort of. The schoolwork was a problem, though. At first I was fine, but I started to sink farther and farther into this mental haze. Eventually, I couldn't focus on anything... sometimes I would just space out for these huge chunks of time for no reason at all."

"I feel your pain," Ayumu said. "Nothing's worse than suddenly realizing that you lost a half hour."

"In the last semester I was pretty much brain-dead... but I still managed to have a little fun. Did you ever see that movie on the internet where that guy is hitting the melon full of sterno with a baseball bat?"

"Mm... no."

"Don't try it. You'll lose your eyebrows. And your friends will tape it and laugh at you until you chase them away with a flaming baseball bat."

"That doesn't sound like you."

"I almost wasn't me. Gahh... I just might be the dumbest prodigy that ever lived. By the last couple of weeks, whenever Brett or his cronies came up with another stupid idea, I'd go along with it just out of this sort of morbid curiosity to see how it would turn out... and to get out of studying every hour of every day."

Her hands moved confidently and swiftly even as she kept talking. Ayumu admired her speed, but the knife was making her a little nervous. "I didn't remember I had those," she commented on the stalks Chiyo butchered.

"They're probably getting pretty old," Chiyo said without concern, tossing them onto her pan. With a quick twist back and forth to judge the flame, she picked a setting and started throwing ingredients in, and liberal dashes of various spices seeing use for the first time since Ayumu had impulsively picked them up. "It's like you have a little produce section in there."

"Well, I've taken up cooking a little myself. My Szechwan technique isn't known or feared anywhere, but I think I'm pretty good at it."

"Oh, did you want to...?"

"No, that's fine," Ayumu assured her. "Saved me the work."

Chiyo took the headband off and stuffed it back in her pocket. "You were in the middle of a story, too, weren't you? Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. So this Rose is your roommate?"

"Yep. She's a theater major, really nice. About two meters tall, but I got stuck on the top bunk because she's afraid of heights."

"Makes sense. How long are you going to keep that on the stove?"

"Until it's done. I have a special sense for that sort of thing."

"Jeez..." Ayumu shook her head. "Model student, master cook, noble friend... is there anything you're bad at?"

"Three things."

"Oh, yeah, I remember now. Sports and tongue-twisters. Wait, three? Is the list longer?"

"I found out last year that I'm also bad at skullduggery."

"Skullduggery?"

"Our dorm played a game of Assassination. We all got a dart gun, one dart and an index card with one other player's name on it. It was our job to shoot that person, then we got their card. Thing was, if you found out who was hunting you, you could shoot them, and if you fired and missed, you had to get a new dart at the front desk. Made the dorm pretty tense for a while, especially for the first week..."

* * *

_"Brett Gipson," Chiyo read aloud, then slid the card into her pocket. "What were the odds? Rose, I'm going out to kill your boyfriend." _

_"Have fun."_

_Making sure that the small dart gun was ready, she set out from her room softly. It was unfortunate, but she was a bit of a mascot for her dorm; everybody there knew who she was. Whoever had the card with "Chiyo Mihama" knew exactly who they were after._

_As it turned out, her assassin didn't encounter her on the way, though she did see something a little unnerving. Two guys greeted one another calmly in the hall, but as soon as they passed each other, one turned on his heel, drawing his gun with a predatory grin. Chiyo quickened her pace, passing under a homemade poster that read "_Watch your back!_"_

_After an eternity, she came to Brett's room. She held her dart gun behind her back and knocked nervously. The peephole darkened for a moment, then Michael said, "It's Chihuahua."_

_"Let 'er in."_

_Upon entering, Chiyo almost jumped out of her skin. The three tenants all had their dart guns trained one her, and they had taped on laser pointers to enhance the effect. Fortunately, she covered her reaction well enough so as not to be suspicious._

_"So, what didja need, Chihuahua?" Brett asked._

_"I dunno," Chiyo replied, "Just bored."_

_"Well, you can hang out with us," Colin invited. "Have a seat."_

_"Sure." Chiyo started in, surreptitiously circling to put Michael between her and Brett. She would only have one shot... but they didn't suspect anything. Why was she so rattled? _I'm not built for this,_ she decided._

_"Hey!" somebody said loudly in the hall. The sound made Chiyo cringe and her dart flew into the wall behind her. All three of her hosts stared. "It's not what it looks like!" she said frantically._

_Michael fired his dart into the tiles at Chiyo's feet. As soon as that dart left its gun, Brett twisted in his chair and fired up at his roommate, missing also._

_"You swine!" Michael cried, "You were sitting there all day, waiting for me to spend my dart, weren't you?"_

_"Guilty as charged," Brett said smugly. "I'll get you next time."_

_"Fool!_ I _can shoot_ you _now! The game is far from decided!"_

_"That all depends, my friend..." both tensed, "...on who gets their dart at the front desk first!"_

_Brett and Michael vaulted from their seats and shoved past Chiyo on either side. She leaned out of the door and saw them racing down the hall, elbowing and pushing each other wildly. They were maybe a little bit too much into the game. _

_"Oh, and Chihuahua?" Colin asked. She turned back just in time to see a foam dart bounce off her forehead. "Your brains are splattered."_

_"It's too late for that," she sighed, handing over her card. She left to Colin's diabolical laughter as he saw his new target._


	5. Crunch!

**Disclaimer: **In real life, shoulder dislocation is no joke. Nobody should mess with a dislocated limb unless they know exactly what they're doing. That said, the dislocation story here is based on life. And "dislocation" sounds really funny if you say it enough times.

* * *

"And if you think that's funny," Chiyo said, handing Ayumu a steaming plate, "I found out later that they all three died in a Mexican standoff right at the front desk. They were quoting _Reservoir Dogs _for weeks after."

"_Reservoir Dogs_?" Ayumu snapped a pair of disposable chopsticks expertly and picked up a piece of chicken. "Never heard of it."

"That's too bad. It was a good movie, but really violent. How's the food?"

Ayumu took her first bite and chewed slowly, eyes closed. She left her friend hanging for a few seconds, then opened her eyes and smiled. "It's really good. I...." and then the _rest _of the flavor hit her. "Oh! Ohh! Holy--! Oh!" She stood quickly and rushed to her mini-fridge, grabbing the carton of milk and downing a quarter of it in one go.

"I only used half the bottle..." Chiyo said apologetically. "Are you all right?"

Ayumu waited for her breathing to return to normal before replying. "That's... that's all right... I should toughen myself up a little anyway."

Chiyo giggled. "The big, bad martial artist still can't handle a little sansho."

"Hey, I quit quite a while ago. Could still kick you in the nose if I stretched out, though, so watch out."

"Yeah, I meant to ask. If you were having such fun, why did you quit Tae Kwon Do?"

"Hm..." Ayumu raised a piece of carrot to her mouth, contemplated it, chickened out and set it back down. "I almost can't say. Part of it was that tournament," she gestured at the picture, "And another part was... well, things happen, you know?"

"What was wrong with the tournament?"

"Oh, nothing! Nothing. It was an awesome experience, but a little nerve-wracking. We three were the only ones there representing our school, and me and Tomo were the only girl yellow-belts, so we got tossed in with the guys."

"Really?"

"It wasn't bad. So there were four schools, and we all had different colored uniforms. Kagura _hated _that; she said that we were all there representing ourselves and it shouldn't matter where we came from. Oh, but it did, kinda... one of the schools was visiting from Korea, and they were a little more... devoted than the rest of us."

* * *

_Kagura and Ayumu sat together in the line along one edge of the ring. It was the gymnasium of a High School they'd never heard of in a prefecture they'd never been to and would probably never visit again. "Odd," Ayumu said under her breath, "I never that I would die in a place like this."_

_On the mat before them, two young men circled each other slowly. Both seemed to be overly-defensive types. One was from the black-and-red school, the other from the hosting school in a conventional dobak. _

_"Oh, come on," Kagura, also whispering, punched her arm lightly. "Don't get like that. You'll do fine."_

_"Sorry..." It was kind of hard not to 'get like that' when your overactive imagination was busy compiling a list of seven-hundred horrible fates you could meet in the ring. Ayumu cringed as the local kid made his move, vaulting forward—and taking the other's foot squarely in his throat. "Is that... is that legal?"_

_Kagura glanced over at her. "Nervous?"_

_"I think I'm gonna throw up."_

_"Did you eat anything this morning?"_

_"Nope. Couldn't."_

_"Then you're golden!" Kagura grinned and patted her back. "Now, be quiet and watch."_

_Red-and-black definitely had the upper hand, throwing blow after blow into his reeling foe and finally dropping him to the mat with a side kick. Ayumu felt a sympathetic jolt in her stomach as he fell. "Kalyo!" the center judge barked, halting the match. He then started counting for the fallen combatant. "Hana! Tul! Set...!"_

_"Is he okay?" Ayumu asked softly. The student on her other side nudged her to be quiet._

_"Yodol! Ahop! Yol!" That was ten. "Kuman!" End fight. As soon as the words left his mouth, the loser rose easily to his feet and took his place to bow._

_"That's just weak," Kagura grumbled. "He's fine. Couldn't he last another thirty seconds?" Ayumu nodded, but secretly sympathized a little with him. _She _wouldn't want to get back up after a beating like that. "I expect better of you, by the way," her friend added._

_The two combatants quit the mat and the next match was announced._

_"Dokgo Hyun and Kasuga Ayumu."_

_"Hyun? Hey, you lucked out!" Kagura said, pulling Ayumu to her feet. "You got one of the Korean kids!"_

_"Great," she replied weakly. None of the matches involving a Korean student had gone well for the other; after all, it was the national sport over there. The foreigners had trained in an entirely different atmosphere and were deadly serious about their art._

_Kagura walked to a folding chair next to the corner judge and sat. She was Ayumu's coach for this match; it would be hers to watch and offer advice during the breaks between rounds._

_Ayumu took her place, wishing for a blindfold and a cigar. Her heart was racing, her legs shaking. Hyun was just a little bit shorter than her, whipcord thin in his yellow dobok, with sharp, dangerous eyes. She wondered what she looked like to him. "Charyeot! Kyeongre!" They bowed. "Joonbi!" Both struck stances._

_Their eyes made contact and Ayumu smiled ever-so-slightly. Lo and behold, the corner of her opponent's mouth quirked upward a little. Maybe this wouldn't be so... "Shijak!" And suddenly she was already blocking a jackhammer-like kick at her stomach. It rocked her even through her guard; she hopped back to avoid taking his follow-up to the face._

_Not deterred in the slightest by his kick only meeting air, Hyun advanced. Ayumu threw a kick of her own, which he pretty much ignored, taking it on his arm. Unfortunately for him, their momentums were just so, and this was the one of the 1/7 kicks that Ayumu managed with exceptional form, and the planets were aligned just right..._

_CRUNCH!_

_Hyun's arm gave way _far _more than it should have. _Oh, my God, I hurt him!_ Ayumu whirled away and crouched before the center even broke them. She didn't know what to do—had she ever even injured anyone before? There was a slight commotion, but it swirled about her without her notice. After a few seconds, Kagura crouched in front her._

_"Is he, is he all right?" Ayumu asked frantically._

_Her friend was watching over her head, her expression a strange mixture of amusement and horror. "Dislocated him... and you'll never guess what he's doing."_

_CRACK!_

_"Joonbi!" What? The fight was going on? She stood and turned to see Hyun working his shoulder in a circle. Had he just...? Again they struck stances. Ayumu smiled nervously, but Hyun's eyes only narrowed. Wonderful!_

* * *

"So then what happened?" Chiyo asked, taking the last piece of chicken from her plate.

Ayumu glanced between her own, barely dented meal and the empty carton of milk, then sighed. "Do you have to ask?"

"I guess not. How bad was it?"

"Well, I don't want you to think I endured this savage beating or anything. It was just a sparring match, after all." Ayumu took another bite and swallowed it quickly. "But he was pissed."

"Wow..." Chiyo couldn't say she had ever had an experience quite like that. She was about to comment further, but Ayumu suddenly started laughing. "What is it?"

"I just realized how funny that whole story was!" She took a few more bites in rapid succession, then shook her head merrily. "The look on my face must have been priceless!"

"I didn't think it was that funny."

"Maybe it's one of those things that has to happen to you," Ayumu said. "Don't tell me you never laughed about the ceiling tiles."

"But I n..." Chiyo trailed off. It was probably just Ayumu being Ayumu. This _was _the girl who had enjoyed repeatedly sticking her face into a pan of flour looking for that penny at the athletics festival, after all. It shouldn't be a surprise that she found having the snot kicked out of her amusing.

"And you know," Ayumu commented as she psyched herself up for another bite, "We almost got our revenge on him, too. Kagura got to fight him for second place."

"How did that go?"

"It started off well..."

* * *

_"This is _so _cool!" Tomo squealed, "She's kicking that guy's ass!"_

_"Shh..." Ayumu nudged her. They sat together in the front row of bleachers, watching the last bouts of the lower-belt tournament. Well, in theory. Ayumu's attention had drifted over the last five matches, but Kagura's duel had her riveted._

_Hyun leaned towards his coach, nodding his head as the older boy gesticulated and spoke rapidly in Korean. Kagura sat alone on her end, serene and confident. Though now that Ayumu noticed, her head was bobbing slightly. "What's she doing?"_

_"Huh?" Tomo looked closer. "Oh, that. She got biffed in the nose three fights ago. She's been snirking up blood for the past half hour."_

_"Oh." How pleasant. Ayumu was starting to get the sneaking feeling that the martial arts weren't for her... though she knew that Kagura would tell her not to trust that feeling and that they were for everybody. "There they go."_

_Hyun and Kagura advanced to their lines and stood ready. "Joonbi! Shijak!" And they collided once more. And though Hyun was putting forth a heroic effort, it was clear that Kagura owned this match. She confidently blocked every attack he threw, and when she struck back, it looked like she was sticking her feet into him without effort—only the way he jerked and reeled from her blows showed what force they had._

_"She never spars _me _like that," Ayumu commented softly._

_"She probably goes easy on you," Tomo said._

_"And you, too."_

_Whatever Tomo's reply would have been was lost as Hyun unbalanced himself and allowed a turning kick to knock him on his back. Kagura's friends stood and cheered—then Ayumu realized that they were standing in a sea of yellow doboks and sat down quietly, tugging on Tomo's pantleg. Her concern was unjustified; many of the others clapped, regardless of what school they hailed from._

_The center started counting. Before he reached two, Hyun sprang to his feet and stood ready. But as they were waiting for him to reach eight (the count never stopped before then), cruel fate intervened. A tiny runnel of blood rolled down from Kagura's injured nose and caught the center's eye._

_"Kuman!" he cried._

_"What?" Tomo yelped._

_"Huh?" Ayumu gasped._

_"Did he just--?"_

_"Was she—?"_

_"Didn't Master say--?"_

_Hyun looked apologetic as they bowed and shook hands. Kagura just looked sort of lost._

* * *

"They were running the tournament with outdated rules," Ayumu explained. "Kagura was disqualified because the judge saw her blood."

"She must have _hated_ that," Chiyo said, eyes wide.

"She was inconsolable," Ayumu agreed. "Well, for about ten minutes. After a while she decided that it was our first tournament, and we should just roll with it. And Hyun was so nice about it, too, he wanted to give Kagura his trophy. Nothing like the first-place guy. He was a jerk."

"What did he do?"

"Well, as the Korean kids left, this guy—I don't remember his name—looked back at us and flicked his _dobak _at us, like this." She tugged on the shoulders of her shirt. "And he said, 'Game... Blouses.' None of us knew what he meant, but the way he said it..."

"Oh, no..." Chiyo said with an expression of horror. "Even in Korea?"

"What? Do you know what he said?"

The prodigy pinched the bridge of her nose and looked at the floor. "That line comes from the bane of my existence. It was like a religion back at my college... please, change the subject before I get a splitting headache."


	6. Old News

Ayumu smiled wickedly. "Now, hold on a second, I'm interested. What was the bane of your existence?"

"Please, I'd rather not talk about it just now." Chiyo seriously _did _look like she was getting a headache. What could possibly be so aggravating?

"Okay, but you've piqued my curiosity. You'll have to tell me sooner or later." On the other hand, she didn't want to cause any damage... very well then, subject changed. "Where are you staying?"

"I was going to get a room at..."

"Forget that. You can stay here. We'll make up the couch; it's where Benjiro sleeps when he's here." Ayumu crossed to her bed and crouched, reaching under it. "That is, if you don't mind."

"Sure, that would be great! It'll be like old times. We haven't had a sleepover since... wow, since when?"

"I think it was that one time where we waited for Sakaki-san to fall asleep then drew all over her with permanent markers."

"Oh, I remember that," Chiyo grinned. ""Yeah... if I remember right, you guys sent me for coffee or something so I wouldn't wake her up. That was really horrible of you."

"Eh," Ayumu shrugged the charge off. "You just didn't have a sense of humor. Here we are," she pulled a plastic tub out of under the bed, packed with a sleeping bag and two pillows. "I actually think the couch is more com—"

"Wait," Chiyo stood up suddenly. "Hold on. Who's Benjiro? I—I mean, if you don't mind my asking." It was kind of funny to watch her two natures at war. It was the old Chiyo super-politeness against a louder, more forward aspect probably cultivated on the other side of the Pacific.

Ayumu made a vague gesture over her shoulder. "Last frame there, next to the TKD picture."

Chiyo took up the last picture and almost laughed. It had been taken at the Nopporo Forest Park, and not to long ago to judge from Ayumu's age. Benjiro was a little taller than Chiyo, a young Japanese man with quite an impressive head of wavy black hair. He had a narrow, honest face, moustache-d, with a large mouth stretched into a mighty grin and purple-tinted sunglasses perched on his sharp nose.

His left arm was off the frame, evidently holding the camera, and his right was around Ayumu's narrow shoulders. She rested her head on his shoulder, looking not only very happy, but entirely present, eyes clear and sparkling. It was a look Chiyo had never quite seen on her.

_Exactly where she wants to be, _Chiyo decided, _She can't dream of a better place. _And in her defense, it's not unbearably cheesy if it's true.

"A boyfriend."

"You sound surprised."

"Oh, no, not at all!" Chiyo cried, meaning it. "I just... he's... you look... why didn't you say anything about him?"

"You didn't ask," Ayumu said easily, dropping the bundle of bedding on the end of the couch. Hold on-- maybe that wasn't the best way to put it. "Sorry, I've never done this 'seeing an old friend for the first time in years' thing before."

"No, that's all right. Sorry. Okay... listen, I'll get my stuff and come back, all right?"

"Sure, sure. I'll set this up for you." It was then that Ayumu noticed with surprise that the sun had set while they were talking. In fact, it was starting to get a little late. When had this happened? Unlike most of the times she lost her day, however, she didn't mind it in the least.

As Chiyo left, Ayumu threw herself into the couch and sagged, sighing happily. What an interesting day _this _had been. She tried to stem the tide of warm memories that seeing her friend again called up, but honestly, how good had she _ever_ been at disciplining her mind?

As different as this girl was, she was still Chiyo-chan. But then, what had Ayumu expected? Chiyo to be some kind of tough, sneering, hard-bitten gangster in a long black coat with "I Am The Center Of The World" across the back? She snickered at the thought. The whole question made Ayumu wonder if she was still the same old Osaka. She sure didn't _feel _any different...

On an impulse, fished behind her couch for one of the books she kept stacked back there. Originally, when she thought that she was a Writer (capital W), she had stocked up with the intention of keeping her technique from becoming inbred. Later, when she realized to her immense disappointment that she was just a person who happened to write without a divine commission, she started picking them out just for fun. It was a lot better that way.

She was leafing through a book of poems by Baudelaire when Chiyo reentered with a red pack over her shoulder. "Hey, listen to this," Ayumu called, "Who of our friends does this one make you think of?"

"_I worship you as I worship the vault of the night sky, o vessel of sadness, o great silent one, and love you the more, fair one, the more you flee me, and seem, ornament of my nights, the more ironically to multiply the leagues that separate my arms from the blue immensities.  
__I move to the attack, and climb into position, like a choir of maggots assaulting a corpse, and I cherish, o implacable and cruel animal, that very coldness which makes you more beautiful to me."_

"This one's from Baudelaire's selected poems. Who does it remind you of?" Chiyo stared at her for a few seconds. "I mean, if you leave out the part about the maggots."

"I... don't know," Chiyo shrugged, "Who?

"Well if you can't figure it out, Ms. Prodigy, I don't think I'm going to tell you!" Ayumu slapped the book shut with malicious glee and tossed it behind the couch again. "I'll let it haunt and torment you forever!"

"Um... okay."

"It's not going to, is it?"

"Probably not. Er, can I use your shower?"

"Huh? Sure. But why are you showering at 9:50 PM?"

"It's a habit you get into when you have class at 6:30 every morning."

"Sure. Just watch out... the shower here will only give you five, six minutes of hot water before it either turns into ice or napalm."

"Thanks for the warning." Chiyo reshouldered her pack and started for the bathroom, but Ayumu put a hand on her arm as she passed. The older girl gestured at a netted pocket on the outside of the pack. "Is that...?"

"Yeah, it's your book. Ever see how it turned out?"

"No, actually. I don't even know what title they gave it."

"Huh?"

"I couldn't think of a title... 'Castles in the Sky?' Hm. I see they broke out the trained monkeys with typewriters. Fitting, though."

"The title?"

"No, that they used monkeys. Can I see that?"

"Sure," Chiyo withdrew the book, handed it over and disappeared into the bathroom. Ayumu checked her watch then started flipping through her own book with a feeling of mounting horror. "I must have been on acid or something," she commented, squinting at a particular passage. "God, how did this sell even as much as it did?"

The mellow hiss of the shower poked at the edges of her attention as she rifled back and forth through the pages. Ah, yes, the pretentious chapter headings. The long paragraphs meandering into nothing. The schizophrenic jerking between bleak fatalism and chipper optimism. _I thought I was baring my soul, but this looks more like a pile of soul droppings._

The cover was nice, though. It was a charcoal drawing of a woman in a long coat walking along a beach; fairly conventional, but she could see that there was more to the picture than was at first apparent. "Whoever you are," Ayumu saluted the artist, "I apologize for stapling my babbling to your genius."

That last thought was interrupted by a loud yelp and the squeal of the shower-knobs turning frantically. Ayumu checked her watch again. "Five minutes, seventeen seconds. Not a bad run."

Chiyo emerged, dripping and rather miffed. "You weren't kidding when you said napalm." She wore a heather T-shirt and pajama pants covered with dancing cats. Ayumu was once again surprised; the change of clothes emphasized how tall and lanky she had turned out, as well as...

"I see you made it out of mine and Tomo's group."

"I'm sorry?"

"Ne-never mind."

Chiyo sat heavily on the pile of bedding her friend still hadn't gotten around to laying out and put her elbows on the back of the couch. "What do you think?"

"Of this?" Ayumu tossed the book back at her. "I never want to see or hear about it again. You?"

"You just said you didn't want to hear about it. And besides, there's so much you have to tell me still!"

"Oh?" Ayumu gave her the Spock eyebrow.

"Sure, there's lots! I mean, you went to college, then moved across the country and now you have a boyfriend. There's got to be hundreds of stories in there!"

"You summarized it pretty well. I don't think I have anything to add."

"Oh, come on." Chiyo was slightly worried again. She noticed that Ayumu had cooled somewhat... there were obviously a few things that she'd rather not talk about. And while part of her was content to leave them be, another part was a little annoyed (and, truth be told, still kind of mad about Ayumu vanishing in the first place.) "Like... when you _were _at the University, what was your roommate like?"

"We kinda got off on the wrong foot," Ayumu replied. "We'll just say she had _no _sense of humor, she didn't like fireworks as much as I did, and she chose the wrong day to walk in the door with a Dorayaki cake."

"That's..." Chiyo didn't know whether to laugh or be sympathetic, "Um, too bad."

"Minako-san and I developed what you might call a comfortable relationship. Basically, we were both alone in the same room. Every time I tried to talk to her, she'd turn the radio on really loud."

"Sounds miserable."

"No, I was fine with that. What made me miserable was that I was failing all my classes, I hardly had any friends, and I couldn't seem to find any clubs I could enjoy. If not for TKD with Tomo and Kagura, I would probably have gone crazy."

Chiyo was now completely at a loss. It was a bitter feeling, as if she was standing there in the sidelines watching her friend go through this, but she could do nothing to help because it was already past. You could call it _Millennium Actress _syndrome.

"I'm surprised I stuck around as long as I did."

"But..." Chiyo _really _hated asking this, but it bore asking. "You're not the kind of person to suddenly leave everything behind and flee across the country. In fact, you're not the kind of person to do _anything _suddenly. You never gave any of us the slightest warning. What the heck happened?"

"I... came down with something. Wasn't a big deal, it just..."

Chiyo sighed. "You uprooted your whole life over no big deal?"

"It's not like there was much there..."

"_We _were there! Didn't you think we'd miss you!?" Chiyo hopped to her feet and rounded on her. "No. It wasn't 'no big deal.' What was it?"

"I... no, I'm serious. It's in the past; _no _bearing on today. You don't have to..."

"I'll bet you think you're saving me worry by not telling me."

"Well, I..."

Chiyo cuffed her. "Quit being so enigmatic! You're tying me in knots, here!"

"Okay, fine." Ayumu mellowed herself and sat up straighter. "If you must know, I had a massive case of pneumonia and nearly died. Happy?"

Chiyo stared for a very long moment. "...not really," she finally managed.


	7. That Guy

* * *

"C'mon, Chiyo-chan," Ayumu pleaded. "Don't let it hit you so hard! It's old news."

"It's new to me," Chiyo shot back, then sat on the floor. "I can't believe you! You didn't breathe a word of this to any of us..." She almost felt hurt, but then Ayumu had her own ridiculous reasons.

"I didn't want you guys to wor—"Ayumu realized what she was saying and held off. "Sorry. I'm sorry. But you asked earlier why I moved away, and that's why. When I'd recovered, I decided that life was just too damn short to waste in that miserable school and I made up my mind to leave. Did a little research... then I watched _Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah_ and decided on Sapporo."

"You made a life decision like _that _based on a monster movie?"

"Well... and Yomi-chan's stories about vacationing in Hokkaido."

"I can't... wow. Did you have a plan? So you hopped a bus to Sapporo and then what?"

"A plan?" Ayumu thought back. "Well... no. I just wanted to get away. I wasn't exactly thinking very clearly at the time. We've been over this."

"You just..." Chiyo leaned her forehead onto her hand. "God! You could have died! You might have starved to death or been shot or what-have-you and we'd never have found out what happened to you!"

"It's about two-and-a-half years too late to get mad at me," Ayumu said blandly. "Things turned out fine, as you can see."

Chiyo crossed her arms. "Awfully selfish of you."

"Yes, I know, now. How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?" There was no response. After a few seconds Ayumu continued. "You already know most of the story after that, depending on how far you managed to get through that _thing_," she gestured at her novel.

Her friend still didn't comment, instead taking a look out the window. Dead leaves rushed by, vividly bright from the streetlights outside. Finally, Chiyo shook her head. What was the point in ruining their visit over something that happened years ago? Maybe it had been a boneheaded move, but it was far too late to change things. "It hurt to lose you." As soon as the words left her mouth, she winced at how awkward they sounded, but again, it was too late.

Ayumu looked at her hands for a while before responding. "I missed you guys. But... I felt like I couldn't face you. I can't say why." She stood and stretched, her back cracking enormously. "And before things get _too _depressing, I'm going to get myself a drink. Want some?"

"Some what?"

"I was thinking sake. You look like you need it." She lifted the tall bottle from its place behind the mini-fridge and refilled her glass.

"I'm still underage."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot." Ayumu said, pouring a second glass. "Here you go."

"This is exactly like one of those insipid peer pressure videos Rose always complained about," Chiyo sighed. "I made it through years of college only to fall before Osaka. Never saw that one coming."

They both sat staring into their glasses for quite some time. The windows rattled slightly in the wind; a frigid finger of air rushed under one left ajar and played through their hair. "It's going to rain, soon," Ayumu commented. "You can smell it on the air."

"Do you still like the rain?" Chiyo asked. She remembered the other running around in typhoons for the fun of it. Maybe that was how she got pneumonia.

"Love it."

"So... want to tell me about Benjiro-san?"

Shrug. "I guess."

"Or do you think I could meet him before I have to leave tomorrow?"

Ayumu blinked. She hadn't known that Chiyo would have to leave the very next day. "Er, probably not. He might blow in tomorrow, he might not. B-san's kinda like a cat..." an unmistakable warmth crept into her voice. "A big, ugly cat with a mop on his head."

"Well... what kind of guy is he? Where does he work?" Normally, Chiyo would have reigned in her curiosity, but the silence had been getting to her.

"He's..." Ayumu stumbled a little. What could she say? Benjiro was Benjiro. "...real nice, I guess. Kind of a slacker. He runs this little book-slash-record-slash-coffee store for a living. Real into music. It's his dream to front a band and go platinum."

Chiyo took the picture up. "He looks like an interesting person."

"Oh, he's really more boring than he looks. The sunglasses are for effect." Ayumu paused. "It's a good thing, though. I'm kind of sick of 'interesting' people, if you know what I mean."

Chiyo had an idea. "No, I was more thinking about the way he makes _you _look."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Sorry, keep going."

"I met him about... wow. A year ago next week. I wonder if he remembers?" She took a swallow from her glass, surprised by the slight giddy feeling that rose in her. "We go out every now and then, you know, art exhibits, movies that sort of thing. We could do just about anything together."

"Anything?" Chiyo asked.

Ayumu looked genuinely hurt. "It's not like that! Jeez, America warped you more than I thought. You know me better than that!"

"I'm sorry. Hey, we're apologizing an awful lot, have you noticed?" Actually, Chiyo wasn't sure what she was apologizing for. Her friend must have mistaken the tone of her voice... but why such a strong reaction?

"Yeah. Don't worry, just forget it. Well... we have fun together, but I think I weird him out a little sometimes."

"Like how?"

* * *

_It was an open-air exhibit near the Sapporo Art Park, thrown by and for an abstract artist who called himeself Kin. The air was remarkably still, dry and warm, a perfect day for such an event._

_"I guess when you look at this one, you're supposed to be able to see into this guy's world," Benjiro commented. "I sure don't see anything, but it looks cool, doesn't it?"_

_Ayumu nodded absently as her eyes slid easily over the splattering colors and looping lines. There didn't appear to be anything lurked under the surface, but-- she bit her lip suddenly. So _that's _how it was... They moved on to the next piece and it tugged at her in the same way. And after the third painting, she actually started to feel a little distressed. "Hey, Yumu-sama, you all right?"_

_"Y-yeah. I'm fine."_

_But after another piece her eyes were swimming. "Um, I think you're catching something I'm missing, here..." Benjiro said uneasily. "Or do you just really hate plaid?"_

_At that moment, the artist in question happened by. Ayumu whirled and threw her arms around Kin, sobbing on his shoulder. "It'll be all right," she cried, "Everything will be okay, you don't have to worry!"_

_Benjiro blinked, wavered for a moment, started to leave, then gave a disgruntled sigh and sat down. "Just let me know when you guys're finished."_

* * *

"Before you can ask, I don't know why either," Ayumu disclaimed. "But if you think _that's_ crazy, _he_ started crying on me. And then, after we wound down, he gave me his phone number. I think B-san was going to beat him up, but then we left."

"Art is one thing I'll never understand," Chiyo admitted sadly. "So Benjiro-san's good to you, then?"

"Oh, he's awesome! In fact, to celebrate my getting published, he took me on an exodus back to see my old literature professor who'd made my stay at college particularly difficult."

"Your literature... how did that go?"

* * *

_"Ha! Ha ha ha HA HA ha!" Ayumu waved the acceptance letter in the professor's face. "You said I was hopeless! You said I couldn't write my way out of a paper bag! Well, who's laughing now? Ah ha ha ha!"_

_The professor didn't respond, instead handing her a newspaper. She took it and read the highlighted review quickly and softly. "Though I got my copy for free, I felt cheated after reading this travesty, even after I was paid to write the review. Ms. Kasuga is obviously not right in her heart or mind, and should not be trusted with a quill. I further move that the executives that decided to publish this book should be shot, then sacked..." she flipped the paper over, "...then thrown into Tokyo Bay with cement shoes." After taking a moment to absorb all that, she handed the paper back to him. "Hm. How about that."_

_"Now will you get off of my desk?"_

_"Oh, right. Sorry." Ayumu stepped down hastily and stood with her hands clasped submissively before her. "Um... it was very nice to see you again, sir," she said, bowing. The professor didn't respond, instead looking into his newspaper. So her revenge was foiled, was it? After a long pause, Ayumu looked around... then kicked over his wastebasket and made her escape!_

_"For what it's worth," her Professor Kanzaki said loudly, bringing her up short in the doorway, "I thought it was great."_

_"Oh. Um. Thank you," she said. "Sorry about... uh..." she gestured lamely at the state of carnage she'd left his desk in._

_"No problem, I earned it. Now run along before I call security."_

_Ayumu did. In the parking lot, Benjiro waited, leaning on the hood of his car. It would have been a classic, but it hadn't exactly aged gracefully. He called it the Black Beater. "Hey, how'd it go?" he called._

_"I'm not entirely sure."_

_"Anyone else you want to see while we're down here?"_

_Ayumu smiled brightly and opened her mouth to respond... then a cloud passed over her features. She looked wistfully around at the familiar landscape and said, "No. No, I can't think of anyone."_

_"Have it your way," he said, and opened the car door for her like the perfect gentleman they both knew he wasn't._

* * *

"So you came all the way back to the Tokyo Area, and you didn't..."

"_Please!_" Ayumu interrupted. "Just... can you let it go? Please?"

"I—I didn't mean to-"Chiyo slapped her forehead. "Look at how vindictive I'm being! Maybe I'm a mean drunk."

"You've hardly touched it."

"Hey, this can be a lot in the wrong hands- or stomach..." Returning to their original tack, she pointed over at the CD player. "So is that Benjiro-san rubbing off on you?"

"Yep. He got me into just about everything I listen to... hey, did you know James Brown is real? I finally found out what a Sex Machine was!"

"Huh?" A _what _machine?

"Oh, you probably don't remember; it was this dream I had. Never mind. I'd play the song for you, but B-san and I have this game going... we're betting on baseball games, my Soul CDs against his reputation. If I win, he has to give me all my CDs back and admit to his friends that I got him."

"How's it going?"

"Sadly, I don't know a lot about sports, so it's like taking candy from a baby for B-san. I'm down to my one Edwin Starr. The last game, I lost my last James Brown 'cause I was stupid enough to bet on the Hanshin Tigers."

"Oh, you did _not _just say that," her friend challenged.

"That's right, you like the Tigers, don't you? You'll be happy to know that the Giants have slaughtered them every game since you left."

"No way!" Chiyo protested, horrified. "Lies!"

"Yep. So all I have left is that one CD. If I lose the next bet, that louse will be able to brag that he stole my soul, and if I know him, he won't ever let it go."

"Stole your...?"

"It's a pun. Soul? You know, the English... never mind. Well... I guess I shouldn't call him a louse; he really is good to me. His friends on the other hand... well, I think that they're only nice to me because I'm his girlfriend."

* * *

_The Record Store had a small number of "regulars," friends of Benjiro that came to his place for all their musical (and often social) needs. It was safe to say that without the regulars, the store would have gone belly-up years ago; by this time, you could almost call them "investors." Tables were spaced out amid the shelves in its dim, incense-scented interior that had seen many strange and heated conversations._

_The regulars were actually the best part of the job for Benjiro. When there was no "real" business, as was often the case, he could just kick back with them and goof off. Some entrepreneurs had that fire in their gut that wouldn't allow them to rest, that would drive them day in and day out to give their lives to their work and make their business the best it could be. Benjiro didn't. That was probably why the record store never really grew, and why he was now the frontman of at least four failed bands. Oh, well._

_He sat now at a table with two of his most faithful customers, Kenichi and Shiro, and Ayumu, who was still a new addition to his life at the time._

_"I don't know," Kenichi was saying, "Lately, I've been listening to Shonen Knife. I didn't think so before, but they've got some good stuff."_

_"Ahh," Shiro grunted, "You shouldn't listen to that Punk shit. They should at least sing in their native language."_

_"Say, have you guys heard of the Hives?" Benjiro asked._

_"And you're always obsessed with that foreign shit," Shiro continued. "Man alive, I'm surrounded by idiots."_

_"Is _everything_ shit to you?" Kenichi asked._

_"More or less."_

_"Then what do _you _listen to?" Benjiro challenged._

_"Hyde's cool. Did you go to his concert with that big iron cross that almost fell on their bass guy? That was the shit!"_

_"Again with the shit," Kenichi sighed, "That's your favorite word, isn't it? Hey, Ayumu! We haven't heard from you. What do you listen to?"_

_And she was suddenly on the spot. Honestly, she had never bothered to form an opinion, but now she was surrounded by people who cared more about music than was probably healthy. "Well... um..." Ayumu thought frantically and said the first group that came to mind. "I kinda like Morning Masume..."_

_Kenichi and Shiro stared at her. What? Had she said something wrong? Benjiro calmly leaned back and put his arm around her, staring a challenge at them._

_"A-all right," Shiro said._

_"S'cool," Kenichi agreed._


	8. Strange Interlude

By the time rain finally came, beating a reassuring cadence on the roof and seeping insidiously in around the windows, an odd sort of languor had settled over both women. The tension and awkwardness both had suffered from had slowly faded, replaced by easy contentment.

They had long since turned from catching up to reminiscing. They recalled fondly the countless festivals, the trips to Chiyo's summer home, sunny Okinawa and Yomi's stories of snowy Hokkaido. (Odd, Ayumu reflected, how living somewhere could change your perspective.) Hurled sea-cucumbers, endless snowball fights with no casualties, alien mind-controlling pigtails, disastrous attempts to ride tandem... it was incredible how much they had crammed into four years.

Eventually, they touched on an experience Ayumu had missed out on by mere minutes.

"I'm not joking," Chiyo insisted, "I'm dead serious. It was this army of cats, twenty, thirty of them, and they were going to claw me and Sakaki-san to pieces."

"And how did you get out of that?" Ayumu asked, not quite sure if she was taking the story seriously. She took a rather-too-deep swallow from her glass and coughed.

"Maya jumped down between us and scattered them. That's how we found him again... but he was pretty weak after, so we had to take him to a vet."

"But... he's one of those Yama... Yam... Pika Meow Meows isn't he? How did you get to keep him?"

"We took him to Tadakichi-san's vet and told him Maya was a crossbreed. I don't think he really believed us, but he was a friend..."

"Yeah, speaking of Tadakichi-san. How's the old Frenchman doing, anyway?" Ayumu realized belatedly that the dog might have passed away, but fortunately, Chiyo only smiled. "He's getting old," she replied. "Tadakichi-san's the biggest, fattest, laziest, crankiest animal you ever met now. He still loves me, though."

Before she could respond, Ayumu yawned jaw-creakingly, and with spectacular form. Some talents never leave you, it seems. "It's getting late," she finally said. "If we want to have any time tomorrow before you have to go, maybe we should get to bed."

"Yeah," Chiyo agreed reluctantly. She started to stand, then wobbled a little. "Ugh... maybe four glasses was a mistake."

"I switched you to Sprite after the first one, didn't you notice?"

"You mean I'm feeling all loopy for no reason?"

"Either that or you're the cheapest drunk on the planet." Ayumu shrugged. "Hey, you're taller, you want to take the bed? I'd be fine on the couch."

Chiyo stretched herself out, knees hooked over the end of the couch. "No, that's fine... oh, look!" She rooted through her pack. "I still have that plushie you got me for my eleventh birthday! He's kind of battle-damaged, though... Rose-san's dogs got a hold of him when I was visiting her family."

Sure enough, she came up with that strange orange cat, now looking a little bedraggled but just as eerie. With the plushie there to complete the picture started by her pajamas and carefree bearing, Chiyo seemed almost the same as the tiny, pigtailed ten-year-old Ayumu had met so long ago.

Ayumu wandered back towards her bed as Chiyo settled in. "Get me up tomorrow, all right? I'm not very good at waking up."

"Sure thing. Good night, Ayumu-san."

"G'night, Chiyo-chan."

And before the pleasantries were even complete, Morpheus swooped in and took her friend. Ayumu really envied people who could fall asleep without tossing and turning for hours. Best to get started on the tossing and turning part now... but after a few moments contemplation, she stood and grabbed up her jacket. "Oh, who am I kidding?"

As Ayumu set out on her habitual nighttime wandering, Chiyo was doing a little wandering of her own. Morpheus had dropped her in a strange, psychedelic landscape that would have made Jack Kirby vomit. Above, orange clouds scudded through a periwinkle sky and somewhere, someone was playing a sitar.

"Holy cow..." she said, "Did the sake do this to me?"

"I'm very disappointed in you!" a deep voice boomed suddenly. Chiyo whirled and beheld the ovoid feline glory that was Chiyo-dad! Even though she didn't really know what she owed to this bizarre creature, she threw herself at its feet and cried, "Please forgive me! I'll never drink again!"

"You thought I was upset about that?" Chiyo-dad crossed his ropy arms. "No, I'm just mad because you didn't make a better showing of yourself. One glass of sake and you're already seeing _me_? _Pfft! _What a lightweight!"

Chiyo rose to a crouch. "Huh?"

"Are you messing with her again?" another voice asked. Its owner emerged from nonexistent shadow, a massive armored figure that Chiyo could swear she'd seen before. "Um... maybe?" Chiyo-dad answered nervously, and then the other thumped him over the head and started dragging him away by his arm. "Sorry about that," the dark figure said over its shoulder, "He can't help himself sometimes."

"Th-that's all right," Chiyo said uncertainly. "Um, see you later..."

And she drifted awake, her eyes opening right into the unnerving gaze of the stuffed cat. "Ahh!" she flung the toy away in a panic. Chiyo lay staring at the ceiling for a few seconds, then turned her head and started to drift off again, muttering, "Never again..."

An hour or so later, Ayumu returned as quietly as she had left. She hung her sopping jacket on the corner of the restroom door and flopped into bed fully clothed. Normally her walks late at night cleared her head, but this time it had just given her more to think about.

Chiyo's visit could not have come at a better time; seeing her friend again was a real shot in the arm. She'd never have admitted it to the younger girl, but the life of a struggling writer was seriously starting to get old... but what else was there for her? What skills or talents did she _have_?

A bleak, despairing feeling rose in Ayumu, but by now it was an old friend. There was nothing. Nothing. She was consigned to be a salarywoman for the rest of her life. Or perhaps she'd just starve in a year or two and die young...

"No, I need to sleep. Stop it, Ayumu. Get it together." Ayumu calmed herself and lay very still, but still sleep refused to come. "It's going to be a long night," she sighed.


	9. Despair

The first time Chiyo woke was at 5:30, an ingrained habit from her rigorous college schedule. But through some determination and elbow grease she managed to sleep in all the way to 10. When it was finally time to rise, it took her a moment for her to figure out where she was and why her back hurt so much. The couch hadn't been such a great idea after all.

She showered quickly (it only lasted three minutes before she got napalmed; a bad omen, perhaps?) and dressed for her day. And what a beautiful day it was; the rain from the night before had cleared, leaving the sky a pale, sharp blue that hinted at the crisp autumn outside.

Ayumu slept as though dead, blanket pulled to about the level of her cheeks and with her hair forming a curtain over what little of her was visible. Chiyo gently shook her shoulder, in reply she made a sound that might have been an attempt at language, but probably not.

"Hey, c'mon. You told me to get you up."

"Fuhgeddaboudit," Ayumu mumbled thickly. "I'm dead. And I have a hangover. Come back when medical science has advanced enough to save me."

So her guest decided not to bother her for a little while, instead setting out on her "morning" run. It had been a habit she'd picked up way back in her High School days when everyone (save Ayumu) was faster than her. Speed wasn't really the object anymore, though. She just wanted to start her day on the right foot, as it were.

After a long, relaxing jog through the cold, misty city she returned to a surprise. The night owl had somehow rousted herself, and was busy making their breakfast. Ayumu looked dead on her feet, her hair sticking out randomly, clothes rumpled and eyes drooping. "You should feel really special. I _never _get up this early," she grumbled.

"It's eleven-thirty."

"Yep. It's way too early." Ayumu tossed the contents of the pan a few inches into the air and caught them expertly. "The last time I tried to cook before noon, I slipped on something and caught myself on the burner, _hiss!_" She glanced over at her guest, who was merely listening. "Wow. The Chiyo _I _know would be freaking out about now."

Chiyo blinked. "Huh? Oh, you mean my aversion to stories about pain."

"Yeah. I noticed you didn't bat an eyelash when I told you about Tomo jumping on my back."

"Well, the guys pretty well immunized me against that. Colin and Michael would compete to see who could come up with the most hideous methods of torture. My favorite involved an ice-pick, an ice cream scoop and a live rat..."

"_O_kay, that's enough. We're about to eat here, you know." Ayumu tossed the contents of the pan a little higher, catching them just as easily.

"I hope so anyway..." Chiyo winced a little as Ayumu flipped their breakfast yet higher.

"I make a game out of it," the other said easily. "One time I nailed the ceiling. Watch..."

"No, that's okay!" Chiyo yelped. "I'd rather _eat _that, thank you. Now be careful or I'll have to tell you about the one with the needles, the eye-dropper and the Tabasco sauce."

Ayumu gave an involuntary jerk. "God!"

Chiyo laughed. "Now you know how I felt. They would go on and on for hours. See, you take the first needle and press it under their fingerna..."

"Okay, it's done," Ayumu interrupted her.

It actually looked really good, if a little plain. More noodles than Chiyo would have used, to be honest, but not bad at all. The smell was nice, too. She took a good-sized lump for her bowl and dropped onto her end of the couch. Ayumu took hers and sat on the opposite arm. "You eat like a bird!" Chiyo commented. "No wonder you're still so thin."

"You should talk," Ayumu replied. "Okay, if you're really immune to stories about pain, we'll try an experiment. I'll need your help for this, ready?"

"Um... sure."

"All right. So you're at a water park. You're goin' down the waterslide..." Chiyo nodded. "Real fast, now imagine this, so fast that you can feel the friction heating on your butt and the lines, you know, you can see the segments of the slide just rushing past, _vwiff! Vwiff!_" She stood and moved her hands past Chiyo's head a few times. "Got all that?"

"...yeah." Where was this going?

"Okay, close your eyes and imagine all that as vividly as you can." Chiyo did. "Okay, you're zoomin' down the slide... and then... and then... one of your toenails _catches on something!_"

Chiyo's reaction could hardly have been more gratifying. A massive shudder starting in the toe in question shot all the way up her body as a sharp gasp rushed through her clenched teeth. This secret ninja art had served Ayumu well many times. "How did you _do _that?" Chiyo asked. "Yikes!"

"You did it to yourself. The more active your imagination, the worse it is."

"So when you..." Chiyo took her first bite.

"Yeah, I thought I was gonna die."

"Hey... this is _really _good!" Chiyo lifted a wad of meat and inspected it. "What did you do to it?"

"I just put a little lemon in it," Ayumu said, holding a thumb and forefinger out in response to her friend's disbelieving look. "I never use all those spices in the cupboard, there. I think it makes the meat sad."

"Wow... well, since you made this, I'll forgive you for the toenail thing. Wanna open your present?" Chiyo indicated the parcel on her table with her chopsticks... but when her host shrugged amiably and reached for it, she winced. "It's... really lame, though. I didn't know what to..."

"Don't worry about it," Ayumu assured her. "It's my fault for disappearing. How were you supposed to know what to get?" She slowly pulled the paper apart, commenting, "It's heavy. Ah, a book! _The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa_."

"He's a famous author from Osaka. I thought it might inspire you or something."

"I think it will. And there's more...? Ah. Stationary... and a list of addresses..."

"Now you don't have any excuse," Chiyo explained smugly.

Ayumu sighed, then gave a small start as something fell out of the parcel and went _ping!_ off the floor. "And a... ten-yen piece?"

"Not just any ten-yen piece," Chiyo said hastily. "Go on, pick it up. You might recognize it."

"Why would I..." Ayumu took the small coin up in her hand. "No way! Is this--? It is! How did you end up with the Chosen One of Ten Yen Coins?"

"The Lord and KEIDANREN work in mysterious ways," Chiyo smiled. "What do you think?"

"Thank you so much, Chiyo-chan! I- I can't tell you..." Ayumu brought herself up short. "I'm really glad you were still thinking of me, even after I left. What was I--?"

"Hey, don't beat yourself up!" Chiyo patted her shoulder. "We're past that, remember."

"Yeah..." Ayumu sighed again, more heavily this time. "When do you have to go?"

"My flight out's at Three. My next stop is Koyomi-san's place in Aomori."

"Not much time left, then. Want to go for a walk or something?"

Something in her bearing made Chiyo uneasy. "Sure, that'd be great."

Ayumu donned her jacket, a light brown duster, and they set out together. The fog of that morning had burned away... well, perhaps "burned" wasn't a very good description. The air had a chilly bite to it that threatened of the brutal Hokkaido winter to come and a grim sheet of overcast now stretched over the sky.

They walked in silence for a time; Ayumu seemed to have a destination in mind. After a surprisingly short walk, they came to Nakajima Park, which managed to be beautiful even as the shuddering trees were shedding their last dead leaves. Ayumu led them to a particular pond and sat in the grass facing it. "I wanted you to see this place," she said. "I come here when I need to think."

"It's very nice," Chiyo offered as she sat a little ways from her friend.

"You should've seen it a few weeks ago, when the trees were all different colors. I could've sat here for hours watching them... something about this place is really calming."

"I can feel it."

They sat for a while, letting the almost-frigid wind rush over them. The pond rippled, interrupting its slate-grey reflection of the sky above. "Wish I could just stay here forever," Ayumu said wistfully, "Even if I did get bored... what does it matter where we go, anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"If you go anywhere... Tokyo, Sapporo, even all the way to America, you're still the same person that left, you've just surrounded yourself with a different cast of idiots. I wish I'd realized that before coming here."

"I can see what you mean. But everyone changes over time. I mean, just look at me. I'm not the same person who left Tokyo... it's almost a little upsetting. Like I'm being twisted into someone who isn't... uh, me." There _had _to be a better way to say that...

"Well, what's so great about who you were?" Ayumu picked up a small rock next to her and tossed it into the pond.

"Huh?"

"That's the way I look at it. 'Course, it's easier for me... _something_ has to change here, after all."

"Hm?" Chiyo turned towards her.

"My life is going nowhere," Ayumu said matter-of-factly, "I'm living off my first and only book, and I'm gonna have to do something soon... write another book, get a job, something. And we all know how full of opportunity the job market is for a shy, frail twenty-year-old with no skills, especially in this recession."

"The recession's still on?" Actually, that wasn't what Chiyo wanted to say, but it was all that came out.

"Yeah. So I've been trying to write this second book for a year-and-a-half, but I don't think I have another book in me. Thus, I have no reason to get up in the morning. I would find comfort in the company of my friends, but they don't have any more reason to be up than me; they just don't realize it. Such is my life."

Ayumu only realized she had said all of that once it was out. Crap! Well, so much for sending Chiyo-chan away with a rosy picture...

"But... what about Benjiro-san? He sounds like a great guy."

"He is." Ayumu drew her knees up to her chin. "But then, I've thought that before."

That screamed for explanation, but Chiyo reigned herself in. She wanted to help her friend, after all, not wring answers out of her. "You could get a job with my father's company. They'd..." she stopped short when Ayumu gave a small, chuffing laugh. "That's very nice of you," she replied, her voice perhaps a little bitter.

Chiyo looked around the park again. The landscape looked completely different to her now; instead of holding that sort of melancholy autumn beauty, it just seemed to be shriveling up and dying. She wanted to say something to lighten the mood, but...

"I should hate you," Ayumu said suddenly, her voice as mellow as ever.

"What?"

"Or resent you, anyway. You're a prodigy. You would've been able to become rich and famous even if you'd been born in squalor, but you weren't; your family is rich. So you would've been able to live comfortably even if you never did a stitch of work, but you do. Here you are, studying away, out to conquer the world. And always so good-natured about it, too."

Chiyo didn't know what to say. She pulled at the grass uncomfortably; it was dying, too.

"And here I am, having struggled to get into a fifth-rate college that I immediately failed out of, a nobody in Sapporo sitting around waiting for nothing. I'm your opposite in every way; no drive, no talent and nothing to fall back on. We all went out into the big, scary world to find our places, and I fell on my face."

"And I suppose you think the world is less scary for me," Chiyo finally said. "I guess you think that having all those advantages makes me so confident and assured, huh?"

"Well..."

"It doesn't," Chiyo said flatly. "You said we all looked for our places; I'm still looking. I still haven't figured out where I can be happy and I'm gonna have to choose real soon. But wherever I go, everybody will be watching me, just waiting for me to cure cancer or draft a plan for world-peace or explain quantum mechanics. And you know what? Sometimes I don't think I can. In fact, sometimes I'm pretty sure I won't do anything special, and the good hand fate dealt me will just go to waste."

They sat for a while longer. "I never thought of it that way," Ayumu admitted.

"Just so you know you're not alone."

Ayumu smirked. "So how're those Quantum Mechanics coming, anyway?"

"I have a few ideas." Chiyo walked over to her and draped a slender arm over her shoulder. "Say, remember that epiphany you told me about?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't think it was just for Tae Kwon Do. You sound like you're defeating yourself before you even get in the ring... but I have faith in you."

Ayumu rested her chin on her knees. A particularly frigid blast of wind slapped over them, slicing right through Chiyo's sweater but also bringing that wonderful dead-leaves smell with it. "It's weird," Ayumu said quietly, "being smaller than you, I mean."

"You think it's weird from your end..."


	10. And So

Ayumu returned to her apartment a few hours later. She tossed her duster across the couch and sat heavily on her bed, much as she had before Chiyo arrived. Her gaze traveled over the room, finally stopping on the desk and its overflowing wastebasket.

Chiyo was gone. She would be in Aomori inside of the hour, and seeing Yomi. How was she, anyway? And Kagura... what was she up to? Had she stayed with TKD? She could be a second-_dan_ by now! Ayumu picked up the list of addresses. She really _had _no excuse, now.

On a whim, she slid Edwin Starr into the CD player and cleared her desk with one sweep of an arm. You could almost call this a new era, she thought, slapping the stationary down and picking a name at random (Sakaki-san, this time) to be her first victim. She had no idea what she had to say to her old friends, but she'd say something.

It was odd, she reflected, as "25 Miles" filled her room and her pen danced across the page. Nothing had _really _changed with Chiyo-chan's visit, but in a way... she saw everything with new eyes. Perhaps that was an overly dramatic way to put it, but _something _was certainly different.

"I won't try and figure it out," she decided. Would the others be as excited to hear from her as Chiyo had? Hopefully they'd at least respond. She took a quick break to review what she'd done so far and happened to glance at the pile of papers she'd usurped. It was clear that trying to wring commercial fiction out of herself had been a mistake; you can only write what you know, after all.

And after going through so many memories with Chiyo-chan, she realized that there was a lot of good stuff in there. Would people pay to read about their adventures in Okinawa, for instance? It was just stupid enough to work...

Of course, to make sure she had everything straight, she'd have to consult the others, though some of their accounts would probably be pretty warped. Tomo's especially... wait a second. Ayumu snatched up the list. "Where's Tomo-chan?"

* * *

Chiyo leaned her head against her window and watched the tarmac rush up to meet the plane's wheels. She might've been nervous, but after the Yukari-mobile, being strapped into a metal cylinder and flung thousands of feet into the air by way of a continuous explosion was child's play.

What really made her nervous was her approaching visit with Yomi-san. She hadn't had the heart to tell Ayumu that about four months ago, Tomo and Yomi had had some kind of massive falling-out, ending with the Wildcat Idiot running off into the night. Nobody had heard from her since.

Yomi's method of correspondence was pretty weak; these terse little paragraph-long letters that only related the bare essentials of her life. Tomo had always forgotten to write. Thus, Chiyo had no idea what she would find upon landing. She didn't even know how the two had related before then—were they roommates? Neighbors? Lovers? (After Kaori-san, she wasn't discounting anything.) Chiyo had no idea what she would find.

Well, there was only one way to find out.


End file.
